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IMMORTAL
TOUR 2000
LONDON - 28 September
Report from the gig in London: The gig went pretty well, we were all a bit tense since it was the first night of the tour. During the soundcheck some of us wondered why ever we decided to open the set with "Moviedrome", but during the actual gig we did one of our very best performances ever with this line-up! "The Butterfly Man" went down a storm and was definitely one of the highlights of the evening. During "The Hanging Tree" the audience got a bit of comedy to watch as John "Tarquin" Mitchell grabbed the wrong guitar (differently tuned) and started playing in the wrong key! Clive walked out from his keyboards, put his arm on Tarquin's shoulder and pointed out that 'mate, you've got the wrong guitar'. The audience loved it!
A review of the gig, reproduced with permission of New Horizons:
ARENA -- London LA2 Weds 27th September 2000
Setlist: Moviedrome, Crack in the Ice, Double Vision, Don't Forget to Breathe, Medusa, Friday's Dream, Serenity, Butterfly Man, Chosen, Hanging Tree, State of Grace, Enemy Without, The Visitor, Solomon.
Arena's show at the LA2 marked the start of their Autumn tour promoting their latest album 'Immortal?' Now I have to admit that after Arena's acoustic set at Whitchurch last month, I was initially a little worried about the prospect of this show. Although singer Rob Sowden's studio
work sounded great, many people (myself included) had been disappointed with his live performances. However the weekend before the tour was due to start, I was invited down to the band's rehearsal rooms to see how things were shaping up and, from this point on, I knew my fears were not justified.
Having arrived at the venue early to help get the equiptment into the hall, the sound checks were carried out and, despite being limited on time here, things sounded pretty good to me and the general feeling for the evening ahead was very positive. Then disaster almost struck as one
of Clive Nolan's keyboards crashed to the ground, snapping off one of the keys. Keyboard tech Dave 'Ace' Boland whisked the broken instrument away and stripped it down, and with the help of "Dr" Ian Moffatt and the judicious application of some superglue, soon had things working again to the obvious relief of the owner.
From the outset it was apparent this was a night of changes. Gone was the 'William Tell Overture' announcing the band's arrival on stage, in its place was a specially prepared introduction to 'Moviedrome'. This was a briiliant decision as it really set up the atmosphere and created a mood of anticipation. As the band finally emerged from the darkness more observant members of the audience will have noticed gone also was Rob's goatee beard. Another more obvious change came from John Mitchell, who seems to have become the Jacques Vielleneuve of the progworld, and had changed his hair colour yet again to blonde.
'Moviedrome' is the real epic piece from the 'Immortal?' album, and it contains some of everything; at times hard hitting, at others much slower paced - but this performance was faultless, with everything coming together seemingly effortlessly. John Mitchell made outstanding use of his midi guitar, getting some incredible sounds from it, while
bass player Ian Salmon was clearly enjoying himself from the outset. He seems to have fitted into his role well and works strongly with John Mitchell, both musically and in terms of stage performance. Clive Nolan, despite suffering with a wrist injury at the moment played
brilliantly throughout, and Mick Pointer hardly put a beat out of place all evening. The audience showed its appreciation in true form and the evening was off to a fine start.
From my point of view the real test for Rob Sowden was now to come, as the next three tracks on the setlist were from 'The Visitor'. Why should this be a problem? Because none other than Paul Wrightson, the man Rob replaced in the band, was in the audience right at the front ...
a fact that Rob was only too well aware of. There were to be no problems here though, as we were treated to 'Crack in the Ice', 'Double Vision' and 'Don't Forget to Breathe'. The entire band were settling nicely into their stride by now and it looked like being one of those evenings where nothing could phase them.
After going back in time to the 'Pride' album with a spot on rendition of 'Medusa', it was time for more new material as Rob introduced 'Friday's Dream' which he dedicated to his mum! This song came across even better live than it does on the album and the vocal harmonies in particular sounded magnificent. John Mitchell then played a passionate version of 'Serenity' from 'The Visitor' which made a strong link into another new number 'The Butterfly Man'. During this song there was a brilliant theatrical touch as Rob slowly turned around, like a figure on top of a musical box, surrounded by a cloud of 'butterflies' which were kept flying in the air by the clever use of a fan. The effect was really magical.
'Chosen' was the last of four tracks to be featured from 'Immortal?' and was clearly a favourite for many of the audience. It really benefitted from being played well, taking on even more power and strength than on the CD version.
As 'Hanging Tree' started up there was at once an indication that something was wrong, but it was not apparent quite what it was. The sound was very strange and it had a dark, almost eerie quality to it. About a minute and a half into the song Clive came out from behind the
keyboards, stood next to John Mitchell with an arm draped over his shoulders and proclaimed 'I'll tell you what we're going to do......', and went on to explain that John Mitchell has a number of guitars tuned to different keys, and he'd picked up the wrong one! The audience erupted with laughter, this was one of those live comedy moments that could not have worked better if they had been scripted into the show! John sheepishly admitted to the audience 'I'm somewhat embarrassed by that'.
Once the right guitar was taken up the track was correctly played, but this mistake had certainly not done the band any harm at all, quite the opposite in fact! More tracks from 'The Visitor' followed, with costume changes, but without further incident, as the band played 'State of Grace', 'Enemy Without' and finally 'The Visitor' itself to end the set.
As the band took to the stage once more for an encore, Clive addressed the audience pointing out that, as this was the fist night of the tour it was the time when things tend to go wrong adding "So far, So good". And it was true, the time spent in rehearsals had clearly paid off. As
the opening strains of 'Solomon' broke out the audience cheered spontaneously before settling back to enjoy it.
Alas, as is often the case there was no time for a second encore, but this did not stop the crowd shouting and cheering for more until finally the house lights came on and people slowly started to disperse.
After the show I managed to have a quick word with Paul Wrightson, and he told me he had very much enjoyed his night out. Whatever went on in the past when he parted company with Arena, it was nice to see him there ... and even nicer to hear that he'd had a good time!
If any criticsm of the performance had to be made I guess it would be with regard to the level of interaction with the audience. There were not really very many moments when the crowd were directly addressed, although in view of the number of costume changes that Rob went through
this is understandable. Also, there were times when the level of the vocals was somewhat on the low side, but this was down to the sound mix rather than any fault with the performance itself. Finally, I did feel that the link between 'Hanging Tree' and 'State of Grace' could have
been a bit tighter - the link had to be longer than on the album due to costume changes but the flow seemed to be a littel disrupted in the process. Really though all of these points are minor issues and overall I have to say that I have never seen Arena play so well.
The fact that they did not fall back on playing large amounts of material from the early albums may disappoint some fans, but for me this show was all about the future. The set list was further proof that the band are developing and maturing by proudly displaying what they now
stand for rather than feeling they have to pull out old numbers just to keep the crowd happy and, for the home audience in London, this approach worked. At the end of the night both the band and the fans were happy with a job well done.
Afterwards I was asked to give the show marks out of 10, as with the album it was another case of 11 - with extra marks for style in view of the 'Hanging Tree' situation. Joking apart though I really believe that this show could represent a big step forward for Arena and mark the
begining of a new chapter in their story.
Simon
A voice from the crowd, Denis Thompson:
This was the first time I had seen Arena and I wasn't dissapointed, well worth the long train journey, coming from Weston super Mare, Somerset.
Having all the albums the show included most of my favourite songs and, having missed "The Visitor" tour, it was great to hear so many from the album.
The highlight for me, was my favourite “The Hanging Tree” which was enhanced by John initially picking up a guitar tuned to a higher key. and Clive having to stop it to point out the fact - a magic live moment. Slightly embarrassed John found the right guitar and the song was played superbly, to great applause.Rob singing was superb, though I'm not sure about all his theatrical actions. I lost count on the number of changes he had to his clothing, as I think the rest of the band did at one stage!!! I pity the person who is carrying his bags for the rest of the tour.
Other highlights were "Medusa", "Breathe" and of course the excellent "The Butterfly Man"
Anyway all to soon the gig was over, another encore would have put the icing on the cake. I tried to get a copy of the play list from the stage but they had all disappeared. I was hoping to get a copy, as at my age the memory is not so good, I know all the songs but putting a name to them well ………!!!The support band Jump seemed to go down well with the audience, though they weren't to my taste.
Best regards
Denis Thompson
And another voice from the crowd, Max Rael:
It all started in the pub... after a long day on a SQL training course, i headed straight for The Flying Horse. A pint of fosters and a shot of bell and i was starting to feel vaguely human again...
Collected fi from work and headed to 'the pub next to McDonalds at Tottenham Court Road' to meet John Boye and Judith (stopping for a pint along the way)... It was good to meet Judith and put another face to an e-mail address.
I was looking forward to Jump (especially after John Boyes description of the lead singer of Jump as 'sort of like a welsh fish')... some people have said they sound like marillion, but to my ears, throw in The Alarm and Lenny Kravitz and you'd probably still only be half way there... some of the songs were a bit cockrock for me, but on the whole they played an interesting varied set.. i may invest in an album yet.
A few beers later and Arena took the stage... the venue was pretty full... i don't why this suprised me, but it did. Rob Sowden definitely had a presence and he sung with confidence and style... Mr Nolans keyboards really impressed me, far less widdly than i was expecting and lots of beautiful dark, swirling atmospheres...
My only real criticism of the drumming on Script For A Jesters Tear is that to me it sounds far too weak... but i realise now this must've been the fault of the producer... Mick Pointer played loud, chunky, liquid beats seamlessly changing time signatures... i recongised a few of the fills but IMO that just added to it.
Highlights: The excellent The Butterfly Man blew me away...Immortal? is the only Arena album i have, and all the songs worked really well live... after seeing the gig, i'm definitely going to invest in the back catalogue...
during the atmospheric intro to one of the older songs, Rob Sowden really into it with his eyes shut... John Mitchell playing a beautiful minor clean guitar arpeg and Clive Nolan walked up to his (john's) mike and said over the top of it.. "I'll tell you what we'll do... " the band stopped and looked at him in horror... "I was just getting into that!!" said a disbelieving Rob Sowden, Clive looked at the crowd and said, "I'll tell you what's happened... Chris has lots of guitars all tuned for different songs... and he's using the wrong one."
the crowd cheered... clive looks at rob and said, "didn't you notice it sounded weird?." rob looks back and says, "it *all* sounds weird to me!!!"... Chris changed guitars and they started the song again with lots of smiles being passed around the band, the crowd cheering when clive's keyboard came in in the same key as the guitar...
I couldn't decide whether to get a cd or a t-shirt... eventually i went for the excellent t-shirt... but i shall be getting the rest of the albums very soon.
As for whether it was prog or not, i couldn't care less...
As John Boye said they sounded more Maiden than Marillion...
One thing i do know is, Arena were excellent.
max
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